Serena Williams sweeps away Victoria Azarenka in 3rd round – US Open 2011
Saturday night saw Serena Williams come to odds with Victoria Azarenka in the third round of the US Open 2011. The players took up the gauntlet on the Arthur Ashe Stadium of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Serena,
who has had an expert summer hard court season and had managed to win two WTA titles, saw a straight set victory of 6-1, 7-6(5).
The two had met six times prior to this event, once in 2008, 2010 and 2011 and three times in 2009. Out of all the times they have met Serena has won five times only letting her opponent triumph once over her. The last time they
met was in 2011 at the Rogers Cup in Toronto where Serena won in straight sets of 6-3, 6-3. This was yet another chance given to Azarenka to restore her dignity but alas, seeded fourth Azarenka was unable to avail the opportunity.
Opening the first set was Williams; she was leading in the game points and by smashing two aces secured the first game. She then went on to break her opponent in the second game and eventually by holding her serve took the lead
at 3-0. Azarenka was finally able to win a game on her serve in fourth game but from their onwards she went further into the abyss. In the fifth game Serena held her serve and in the sixth again broke Azarenka for the second time, increasing the gap between
their games. In the seventh game she held her serve for the last time and by smashing another four aces, she bagged the set without much opposition and saw a comprehensive victory in just 28 minutes.
Although, Azarenka is seeded fourth she was unable to play against Serena, who had smashed over six times as many winners (13 to 2) as Azarenka’s and had won 13 winners and had nearly twice as many points as the number 4 seed (Azarenka)
in that set (27 to 15).
The second set was not as easy as pie; instead it was an 82 minute marathon, as Azarenka was not ready to throw in the towel and battled it out with the big hitting Serena.
During the second set both the players rallied long and hard, however, Williams managed to move ahead with 5-3 but had to fend off a late gush from Azarenka in the ninth and tenth game as Azarenka was able to finally break back
and equalized the score to 5-5. Azarenka saved four match points and pushed it to a tie-break, but in the end Williams was just too much to handle and blocked Azarenka out.
Commenting on her performance Azarenka said, "Williams won the first five games in 17 minutes. It's painful, to have somebody just going at you like that, it's painful.”
Basking in her glory Serena said, "She's playing at a higher level than I've seen her play in a few years but it was a good feeling. Every player wants to play that way but stay in that zone - I give her all of the credit, she
lifted up her game."
Former world number one, Serena Williams will now be facing another former world number one Ana Ivanovic, the Serb in the fourth round.
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